Search Results for 'fano'

[UtesRule]

Everything I’ve heard says Logan Fano is on pace to be back by fall practice.

[MDUte]

I wonder if this because we likely won’t have L Fano back until around conference play?

[2008 National Champ]

I wouldn’t say everything has to go wrong for Utah to end up with 9 wins. To me that’s the starting point (Vegas line and also the average Utah season since 2015) and then I look at each position group to see whether improvement is expected or just hoped for.

I think we are all counting on improved QB play as long as Rising stays healthy so I would add one win there. The only reason I don’t count it as two is because of Rising’s injury history.

O-Line: Two multi-year all conference starters left and it appears they will be replaced with a RS freshman getting his first starting experience (Lomu) and ??? (maybe Kump). Right now I would call that a wash at best with 2023 as they should benefit from better play around them.

RB: Feels like it will start with the by-committee approach and hope someone steps up like Thomas did in 21 or Moss in 2017. At this point I’d give it a slight negative and round to a wash.

WR: There’s certainly more talent than past years but the reports I saw out of camp were that other than Singer, no one had really distinguished themself. Add in the standard underusage of receivers and I don’t think that group will account for a full win. Especially since the blocking Enis and Vele provided the last few years was so important to the running game. So I’m positive but not positive enough to move the needle.

TE: Kuithe/King should be able to provide a reasonable facsimile to 21 Kuithe/Kincaid. But what really sets the room apart at Utah is when they have a Fotheringham to complement the receivers and I haven’t seen that level of play from the inline types.

Overall, I’d say that the offense should be worth 1.5 wins above my starting point.

DE/DT: I’m putting these together because I feel like any gains the Tackles make will be offset by the Edges. The Tackles have been pretty consistent in their production the last 2 years and it’s not at the level of Lotuleilei/Mokofisi or Fotu/Penisini. And I feel like they will need to be since peak 23 Edge play by Elliss/Fano is hard to replace. We’ve been waiting 3 years for Filinger to live up to his potential with a full season of healthy production. O’Toole will be good but will he be Elliss good? And I’m going to assume only 1/2 season of Fano. Again, a wash.

LB: I think we’ve already seen Reid’s peak and Damuni is out for the season. I had high hopes for J. Calvert when he transferred but he’s looked lost whenever he’s gotten on the field. Reynolds hasn’t played a competitive down in over 3 years. The primary backups from last season have all moved on. Sure Barton can probably move inside or Fotu (who I’m really high on) can take that spot but overall, I’m not seeing any reason to add a win. There’s potential but I wouldn’t lay my own money on it. On tax day 5 months before we start getting answers, I’d call it minus 1/2.

DB: 4 new starters and from what I saw in the spring game, the people behind them aren’t ready for primetime yet. While I have concerns at LB, this group scares me going into a league that loves to play shootouts. Individually, I think Johnson will be better at Free than the combination of Vaki/Bishop were. Ritchie needs to get back to his Covid level play because he struggled last year. In 2025 I expect Ritchie to be back to as good as Bishop but I don’t think he’s there yet. Vaughn should improve. Snowden will definitely improve. And whoever ends up at the other corner can probably approximate what Utah got from Broughton/Battle. But this group depends on everyone being at the top of their games at all times and we’ve seen better groupings get carved up by the not exactly pass happy offenses in the PAC. I’d go down 1/2 of a win but only because last year’s DB’s weren’t adept at turning the ball over. Those havoc plays can cover a lot of deficiencies and were sorely lacking in 23.

Defense, that puts me at minus 1.

Schedule wise, I saw a stat that Utah plays 3 of the top 7 teams in returning production (Ok State, Baylor and Iowa State). Utah goes on the road for Ok State which is used to playing Oklahoma’s talent every year. Gundy is every bit as good of a coach as Whitt.
Iowa State is my sleeper pick. Their QB threw for over 3k last year as a RS Freshman. If that was a road game, I think I’d pencil that one in as a loss right now but with their expected improvement year over year, I don’t think it will be an easy home game.
Then you follow that up with a short week cross country trip to UCF which may be ready to put up an Arizona 2023 type season with all of their young talent.
The bad teams will look bad against Utah but the tough ones, especially if they hit Utah at the right time, are all capable of winning.

So I give the schedule a minus 1/2 to get me back to my starting point. My mentality is to underpromise and overdeliver. I’ve gotten the last 3 years right so I’ve never been disappointed. I’ve been able to look at it from the perspective of how can it be even better instead of needing to join the chorus who show up to post that the team may never win another game after the first bad/shaky performance of the year.

[Utesby1]

For those who were unable to attend or to watch the game, I decided to take some detailed comments and share them here. Some of these comments are more opinions than actual observations.

QB
Rose missed some easy throws. It is true that he has the most powerful arm in the QB group but he is indecisive and not as accurate as I had expected. Given that Wilson is so new, his trajectory is much steeper than Rose. Even if they are “in a dead heat” now (which they are not) Wilson is likely to pass him in the near term. Naturally, the coaches are being circumspect in their comments because we really do not want Rose to leave right now. If he leaves, imagine what a QB room would be like with Cam (never finished a season), Wilson (true freshman who still needs surgery), and a transfer portal guy (unproven).

Wide receivers
Singer was the Alpha with Money close behind. Singer dropped a long pass against the sidelines that would have made his numbers even more impressive. Best catch of the day was a 26 yard completion to Jett. Very little involvement in the offense from Pittman today. Zipperer had a long pass thrown perfectly by Wilson but he inexplicably stopped in the middle of his route so the pass was slightly overthrown. Money, Pittman, and Singer are all so small that it makes it hard for them to be possession receivers. Washington and Lyons caught a couple of passes. I cannot see much likelihood that either of them will help much this year. So as far as WRs that we can count on we have Parks, Singer, Pittmen, and McClain. Zipperer might be the 5th guy but he is not a certainty. I can see why Whitt says we are going to get a receiver or two from the portal.

Tight ends
Kuithe and King look a lot alike. They are both bigger bodies who can get open. King made at least one great catch. Kuithe is always there when we need a first down throw. I expect to see one or maybe both of them on the field at the same time as Ryan, Bentley, or maybe Miki so maybe they can partly alleviate our shortage at wide receiver. Both Kuithe and King could really help themselves and the team by learning to block better. I saw them try a time or two but their efforts look ineffectual.

Offensive line
I did not see two probable starters (Mokofisi and Togai) but the rest looked very solid in pass protection. When Cam or Rose were pressured to run it was because the QB took too long or the receivers were not open. I watched Lomu and Fano specifically and they gave up basically no pressures. Run blocking was another matter. It was abysmal. Very few holes were opened. I saw Moeai try to play tackle and he was abused every snap (at least his pants did not fall down like the other kid)_

Running backs
Stanley had one of the longest runs. The hole was not open so he broke it outside and beat everyone around the end. Vincent had a productive day but I cannot believe that he will be a significant part of our running back rotation. We threw the ball to the running back quite a bit. It will be interesting to see if we do that during the season. We have not done it much in the past but it seems to me that catching the ball out of the backfield would be the best use of Bernard’s skill set. Mitchell was not impressive at all. Even in short yardage situations he did not hit the hole with any power. It was obvious that we do not have a JJ in the room.

Defensive line
Hard to say much since none of the starters played. Fillinger and OToole did not play nor did Junior or Tanavasu. Akana seemed to get a little pressure but he was the only one. Benson looks like he can play but I am not sure he will be ahead of the other tackles.

Linebackers
Anae did some good things but he was the only one who stood out. In a pass heavy game that does not include blitzing the role of linebackers is limited. I did not see Calvert or Fotu and obviously Barton and Reed did not dress.

Cornerbacks
Calhoun looked very good. It appears that he can handle reps right away. The rest of the corners (Vaughn, K Johnson, Smith, and Davis) did not participate. I watched Blocker closely. He did okay but nothing was noteworthy. Nick Howe looked good. I do not know if he is even a scholarship. We need a couple more cornerbacks so either Blocker and one of the incoming freshmen step up or we need to get some guys from the portal.

Safety
We played cover two most of the game so we got to see how Johnson, Richie, Hall, and Gilman handle deep throws. Richie looked especially good in limited reps. Gilman missed at least one assignment which is a little odd for a guy who has been playing for 4 years. Briton Allen played some and struggled a bit. No help from him in the short term. I did not see the freshman FS from Southern California. I cannot remember his name.

Special teams
Two long field goals by Becker were a welcome change from the past few years. There was no other special teams work.

[RedUte14]

Fano is also injured.
O’ toole was injured most the season.

[ProudUte]

Nice article, but Here are a few guys who should be on that list IMO, who are not:

Lander Barton
Connor O’Toole
Spencer Fano

[S.CarolinaUte]

This is what Joe Coles reported on X.
Whittingham was especially complimentary of redshirt freshman RB Mike Mitchell, who stood out during media viewing session.

“Mike Mitchell. He’s not wearing pads today, but he did some really good things … he’s a guy that I think has a bunch of upside,” Whittingham said.Whittingham singled out USC transfer wide receiver Dorian Singer as the furthest ahead of any of the new transfer receivers, as expected.

“Dorian Singer looked really good today. He’s probably the furthest ahead of any of them. He’s got the most experience,” Whittingham said
Whittingham said Georgia Tech transfer cornerback Kenan Johnson stood out today. Johnson is in the running for Utah’s open starting outside cornerback spot.
Tao Johnson is making the switch from nickel back to safety as Utah looks to fill two starting spots following SIone Vaki and Cole Bishop’s NFL Draft declarations.

“He looked really natural there today and did a great job,” Whittingham said.
Utah is replacing two starting offensive linemen, Keaton Bills and Sataoa Laumea. Whittingham indicated after day one that Spencer Fano played right tackle with Caleb Lomu at left tackle. Michael Mokofisi at one guard spot, Tanoa Togiai at the other and Kolinu’u Faaiu at center.

[ProudUte]

Spring Ball

A couple of notes:

– Sounds like Isaac Wilson is getting some reps. I guess he has not yet had surgery.

– Luke Bottari is still on the team. I thought his eligibility was up.

– Newcomers – Mike Mitchell and Dorian Singer are looking good.

– Fano is being moved to right tackle.

I saw another report from Hans Olsen who said that Cam Rising is looking healthy and sharp.

[MDUte]

Totally. Right now I’m listening to the podcast he does with Keanu Tanuvasa and it’s another really good one. But the BYU dude again admits he went to BYU because he thought it was going to be the best fit for him. But now that it’s all over he realizes it was a mistake and he never was going to be able to reach his potential at the Y. I don’t know how he was as a player but he said Utah was his favorite school growing up…too bad for him he made the wrong choice.

[MDUte]

Tony, I can’t seem to get the YouTube link to post correctly. What am I doing wrong?